Icy? Or hot? ~TodoBaku~

Chapter 4: baths, a tragic tale, and a suspicious absence

Shoto Todoroki

God that was stressful. I seriously thought I was about to have my head ripped off for asking for a coffee. Thankfully, that other blond was there to 'defuse the bomb', so to speak, or else something really bad could've happened, like me getting shoved through one of the glass windows and slicing my neck!

Although, despite my near-death experience, I was actually more intrigued by Bakugo than scared of him. It seemed like he was immensely irritable, which could lead to some very amusing encounters. I chuckled slightly to myself, anxious but also excited for the days to come, in which I would make sure to visit the shop again.

Having returned home, I finished off what was left of the iced drink, which was *fucking glorious* by the way. He might be an asshole, but the man knows how to make a coffee, I thought, my mind drifting back to the strangely comforting thought of the little coffee shop. No, in fact it wasn't the coffee shop I was thinking about, more the angry lunatic that worked there. I just couldn't seem to brush away the thought that he seemed... interesting.

Shaking my head, I made my way over to the bathroom to start running a bath. In this apartment, this was a difficult task. You see, my boiler had a strange habit of working for approximately twenty seconds, before running ice cold water for a similar length of time, then suddenly changing its mind again and running heated water. Trust me to end up with a bipolar boiler. Jesus Christ, everything in my life appeared to be bi-something. My hair, my eyes, *me*, and now even my fucking boiler!

After around 10 minutes of subdued frustration, I eased my way into the disappointingly lukewarm water, submerging myself right to my neck, pointing my toes to stretch out the full length of the bath. I'm alone, of course, so I can be a child if I want to. Not like I was ever allowed to do this when I *was* a child was the thought that flipped my positive attitude like a switch. I closed my eyes, before submerging my head completely under the water, just for a moment, in an attempt to clear my head. This was a little trick I'd learned a couple months back, when I'd first started living alone. Fortunately, it worked this time as well, and I re-emerged, leaving those thoughts behind for now.

Nearly 20 minutes passed before I decided to exit the bath, stepping out onto the tiled floor below, having completely forgotten the bath mat I had bought a mere few days ago because I'd worried about slipping and damaging my spine beyond repair, but clearly today I was too pre-occupied with thoughts of how to make Bakugo angry tomorrow. Whilst drying myself off, I looked over into the large bathroom mirror.

Looking back, I saw a disheveled looking 18 year old economics student with mixed red and white hair that looked like the flag of England when wet, heterochromatic eyes and a nasty burn encompassing his left eye. I often though that, without the scar, I might pass as a good looking guy, but I guess that's just how life goes, isn't it?

Genetic lottery my ass, I thought, before turning my head away to continue changing for bed. Yeah, I know it's still only about six o'clock-ish, but I made a habit of being in bed early, and then I wouldn't have to leave bed when it was time to actually sleep. I considered it evolutionary, as I'd adapted to my surroundings and accounted for my major weakness - being *lazy*.

I plugged a pair of earphones (can't have the neighbours hearing noises, they might kill me) into my phone, before opening up YouTube and browsing my suggested page. I ended up watching some random gaming channels I'd never heard of for a couple hours, before getting kinda bored and putting some music on instead. I lay peacefully for around 45 minutes, listening to all kinds of music, varying from Who's Crying Now by Journey, to Glass Spiders by Hot Milk, before I paused the music, took out my earphones, set an alarm, and lay down to sleep.